Category: Sci-Fi Snippets
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Blindsight by Peter Watts
Blindsight (2006), by Peter Watts, is a hard SF novel of first contact with a unique twist. It asks difficult questions about the nature of…
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SF Classics – Nova by Samuel R. Delany
Nova (1968) is an SF novel by Samuel R. Delany. It reads like space opera, with a hero on a quest and two interstellar…
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His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
His Majesty’s Dragon (2006) by Naomi Novik is an SFF novel, and one of the best examples of alternate history. It’s set during the…
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Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
Aurora (2015) by Kim Stanley Robinson is centred on a generation ship en route to a Tau Ceti’s Earth-like exoplanet to begin a colony.…
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The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (2010) is a fantasy novel by N. K. Jemisin, and the first book of The Inheritance Trilogy. Complex, at times…
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The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks
The Algebraist (2004) by Iain M. Banks, is an SF novel that combines space opera, fantasy and spy story in an overwhelming mix. Set…
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SF Classics – The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons
The Rise of Endymion (1997) by Dan Simmons is the fourth and latest instalment of the Hyperion Cantos, and set in the same fictional…
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SF Classics – The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter
The Time Ships (1995) is Stephen Baxter’s first SF novel. Its particularity lies in the fact that it is an (authorised) sequel to The…
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SF Classics – The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke
The Fountains of Paradise (1979) is SF novel by Arthur C. Clarke. It discusses for the first time the possibility of space elevators linking…
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The Dervish House by Ian McDonald
The Dervish House (2010) by Ian McDonald is near-future science fiction/ thriller novel. It follows, through alternate character perspectives, a bus bombing incident in…
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Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Doomsday Book (1992) by Connie Willis is a science fiction novel. It portraits time travel to medieval history, in a back-and-forth within the city of…
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The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Road (2006) by Cormac McCarthy is a dystopian, post-apocalyptic novel and one of the best of its kind. It portrays the dangerous journey…
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SF Classics – Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson
Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988) by William Gibson is a SF novel and the final instalment of the Sprawl trilogy, after Neuromancer and Count Zero,…
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SF Classics – Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
Speaker for the Dead (1986) by Orson Scott Card, is a SF novel and the sequel of Ender’s Game, even though the events take…
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SF Classics – The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
The Sirens of Titan (1959) by Kurt Vonnegut is a SF novel portraying a Martian invasion of Earth. Its main theme is free will, and…
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Aye, And Gomorrah by Samuel R. Delany
True, Aye, And Gomorrah is by no means a recent story: it has been published in 1967 in that amazing anthology (Dangerous Visions) that I…
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Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey
Leviathan Wakes (2011) is a SF/ space opera by James S. A. Corey – i.e. the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck.…
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Short stories: spotlight
One thing I’ve always missed about online reviews is that they are normally only taking into account novels – with anthologies as a distant…
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Brasyl by Ian McDonald
Brasyl (2007) is a novel by Ian McDonald. It portrays an original SF thriller set on three different timelines – i.e. Brazil at different…
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The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Years of Rice and Salt Quotes (2002) is a Kim Stanley Robinson’s speculative fiction novel. It’s one of the most convincing examples of…
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SF Classics – The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin
The Dispossessed (1974) by Ursula K. Le Guin, is an utopian SF novel. It belongs to the same fictional universe of the Left Hand of…
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SF Classics – Titan by Stephen Baxter
Titan (1997) is a SF/ techno-thriller by Stephen Baxter. It examines Saturn’s moon Titan as the object of a manned mission aiming at discovering…
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SF Classics – Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis
Out of the Silent Planet (1938) by C. S. Lewis is the first of the Cosmic Trilogy and an early example of space travel…
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XXI CENTURY SCI-FI – The City & the City by China Mieville
The City & the City (2009) is a weird fiction novel by the British author China Mieville and based on the investigation of a…